Activision enlists third COD studio

By Robert Purchese Published 19 November, 2009

Takes load off Treyarch, Infinity Ward.

Activision has dedicated a third developer to the record-breaking Call of Duty series and lessened the strain on Treyarch and Infinity Ward, according to a report.

The Los Angeles Times offers no further detail to back up its claim, but does talk of a possible Call of Duty MMO - a game Activision boss Bobby Kotick has teased in the past.

Or this mysterious third studio could slip into the familiar rhythm of producing an alternate Call of Duty instalment alongside Treyarch and Infinity Ward, a move that could theoretically lengthen the development time of each. Or perhaps the developer has been drafted in to handle iPhone and mobile ports, or to tackle DS, PSP and Wii variations.

News of a third studio arrives a day after Activision unveiled Sledgehammer Games, a new in-house studio lead by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey of Dead Space fame.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 7 months ago

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  • Zomoniac #1 2 years ago

    Oh perhaps it's the most obvious conclusion to draw: that Activision are planning on releasing somewhere between 2 and 76 COD games next year.

  • bad09 #2 2 years ago

    Probably to work on that paid for COD online they keep greedily eying up.

  • spadge #3 2 years ago

    COD Hero unconfirmed, with plastic AK47

  • Vice.Destroyer #4 2 years ago

    Call of Duty: Medieval Warfare? The Braveheart edition?

  • Darren #5 2 years ago

    Talk about milking a franchise to death...

    Well I won't be buying the next Call of Duty game because after eight games (including one terrible Xbox effort and a decent PC expansion), I feel I've exhausted the series and think that if I continue playing them that I'll just grow to hate it. MW2 was OK at a push but it did feel like one Call of Duty games too many for me.

    An annual Call of Duty game obviously earns Activision millions, it's a license to print money in effect. IW refuse to rush them out yearly so Activision have drafted in inferior developers to churn alternative games in between the "real" ones. As long as people keep buying 'em, Activision will keep the Call of Duty production belt going. I guess I can't blame them, that's how industries work, but it does mean that quantity takes precedent over quality.

  • Skurmedel #6 2 years ago

    Milk that cash cow Koticks until the teats are saggy and wicker!

  • Skurmedel #7 2 years ago

    Wonder if this is gonna end up like NHL or something... a yearly Call of Duty game. A hockey game can rely on auxiliary stuff though, the basic game can stay the same... a FPS needs some kind of story and depth.

  • FortysixterUK #8 2 years ago

    As long as they offer an intense story, good characters and enjoyable gameplay I'll keep going with them....I've enjoyed them all so far !!

  • Dan234 #9 2 years ago

    So, what do Activision do for people who don't like Call of Duty or Guitar Hero?

  • Skurmedel #10 2 years ago

    Dan234: Set a precedent so the other publishers can milk our money too? :)

  • JonFE #11 2 years ago

    Yesterday I was commenting on vg247 that with them dropping the Call of Duty moniker from Modern Warfare 2 without any lost sales, I had the funny feeling that Activision could let Infinity Ward do their thing in the *new* Modern Warfare series and get another studio to share development of future CoD annual installations with Treyarch.

    Activision are either very transparent or read gamers' comments :D

  • TruWari3r #12 2 years ago

    Wasn't there some talk of a possible spinoff for Ghost?

  • jambo74 #13 2 years ago

    COD - Time Traveler

    Features wars through the ages....

  • jambo74 #14 2 years ago

    @Dan234

    There are plenty other developers / games out there.

    May as well ask Ford what they do for people who can't drive or do not like cars or vans
    Edited by 1 at 19/11/09 @ 10:01

  • penhalion #15 2 years ago

    After playing through MW2 and being thoroughly disappointed (single player) I wonder how many people will bother getting MW3.

  • gjgjg #16 2 years ago

    I smell COD shovelware from inferior developers...

    @Dan234

    what are you crazy? BeeMovie was a trip (...oh wait i was tripping)

  • DevilsNeverCry #17 2 years ago

    @JonFE: MW2 clearly has CoD written on the case, so they aren't yet willing to completely disassociate the game with that series, because it's partly that brand that attracts so many people.

    I don't think I, like many others, can actually stomach more CoD though after this one. MW was great and MW2 is better but it's very similar and it gets boring quickly.

    A CoD MMOFPS could be quite an interesting idea but it would have to be cheap tbh.

  • kinky_mong #18 2 years ago

    @Penhalion: Probably a lot seeing as Spec-Ops and the multiplayer in MW2 are fantastic.

  • Redeye #19 2 years ago

    "A CoD MMOFPS could be quite an interesting idea but it would have to be cheap tbh."

    DevilsNeverCry: The probability of such a thing being cheap (in any way, shape or form) has about the same odds as the Pope being named as the next Scotland manager.

  • actionfitz #20 2 years ago

    Perhaps that 3rd studio is Blizzard hehe.
    World of Duty Craft anyone?
    /fail.

  • JonFE #21 2 years ago

    @DevilsNeverCry :

    I guess we are both partly correct, as the Hardened edition I purchased does not carry the CoD moniker but the normal edition does, albeit a small one.

    In any case, the possibility of more CoD games does not please me either, but as long as these sell well, Activision will make them. After all, they have already expressed preference on annually exploited franchises and the thought of over-saturating the market clearly hasn't crossed their minds, as Guitar Hero demonstrates.

  • clockworkzombie #22 2 years ago

    I would not be unhappy with three developers making CoD games and one per year released. The only downside would be waiting 3 years for the next MW instalment.

  • local_celebrity #23 2 years ago

    What a Call of Duty MMO involve exactly? Patrolling an East German military installation for hours on end, waiting for some Marines to blow the shit out of you? Hmmm...

  • ForburyLion #24 2 years ago

    Call of Duty: Intergallactic Warfare to take on Halo?

    Call of Duty: Robotic Warfare with Robots, obviously.
    Edited by 1 at 19/11/09 @ 15:34

  • Freek #25 2 years ago

    Probably won't last, given the sales figures of MW2 compared to WaW consumers seem to be pretty clued into what the "real" CoD games are and what the "also ran" entries in the series are.

  • trooperdx3117 #26 2 years ago

    The way Activision are going I wouldn't be surprised if people became bored with Call of Duty soon.

  • sneetch #27 2 years ago

    Call of Duty MMO? A 40 man raid to take down Hitler? Watch out for the fireballs he casts during phase two. ;)

    I'm starting to think Cash On Demand when I see the initials COD.

  • Skurmedel #28 2 years ago

    Well, isn't Wolfenstein a 1 man raid to take down Hitler? No they need to go present day, be down with the times and shit... fight in The Caverns of Usama! If you are persistent he might drop the rare Golden AK47 +2 Lead Flurry.
    Edited by 1 at 19/11/09 @ 17:12

  • evild_edd #29 2 years ago

    They could have 100 developer s working on the franchise.

    At the end of the day, stick to the golden rule of only buying IW produced CoD titles.

    From the above coments though, I wouldn't be surprised to see MW brand developed seperately by IW, with other studios stuck with the WWII setting.

  • clockworkzombie #30 2 years ago

    @evild_edd
    Treyarch have already said this was the last WWII game for now, rumours nave been talking of the Vietnam war era music being licensed.

    I still think WaW is a good game, the maps from map pack 2 and 3 are better than the maps in MW.

  • Zaiz #31 2 years ago

    Uh, three developers? I hope this is just to move to a three year dev cycle(And by that I mean, so I only have to buy MW3 three years from now), in which people who do things like write good storylines are commissioned to write storylines. I mean, MW2's storyline is just fine as long as you, uh, completely ignore it. And the fact that there's no backstory of the events between the games...eh. >.> That's probably my biggest complaint.

  • kongzi #32 2 years ago

    I'm only interested in seeing a new IW call of duty. The ones by Treyarch just don't stack up and this new studio is probably going to do some MMO/piramid scheme crossover shit that's not gonna happen at my house. It seems like Activision is hellbent on milking their IP's for all they got while the rest of the industry is trying to stop doing that, even EA.

  • Harmonica #33 2 years ago

    Countdown to dropping Treyarch as a CoD developer..

  • james-mw3-mw3 #34 7 months ago

    MW3, like its predecessors, is a first-person shooter. To give it a competitive edge over other games, Modern Warfare 3 runs at 60FPS! A new Special Ops mode includes one and two player cooperative play with a survival mode and new weapons and perks, so with this Modern Warfare 3 is 100x better than this game.